I'm not related to anyone famous but I have cool ancestors, at least I think they're cool. One of my great great great great... (and so on, not sure back how many generations) was the daughter to an Indian chief. Another distant relative, not as distant though, was a seamstress for the Queen of Sweden. She could hand sew as perfectly as a sewing machine.

Also my Talbot (dad's mom's family) ancestors came to the US from England via South Africa. I guess one of the Talbot girls was a servant in to the King of England who somehow became pregnant the family was sent to South Africa to help with colonization. Grandpa Talbot learned to speak many of the native languages while there and became a great friend to many of the tribes. There was a orphaned African boy (Gobo Fango) who took a liking to the Talbots and they him. When grandma and grandpa decided to come to America Gobo wanted to come with them so badly that they let him. The problem was that at the time they weren't allowing more Africans into the US. SO grandma lifted up her hoop skirt, and Gobo walked in the country undetected. Nothing famous I just love the story.

Well, I always thought this story was interesting. Here's the abridged version.

My great-great-grandfather had an identical twin. They were struck by lightning. One died immediately after, and the other was unable (or unwilling) to speak for a long time as he recovered. No one could figure out which had died and which was recuperating. Their mother was the only one who had always been able to tell them apart, and she had died years earlier. So finally the dead one was buried, the surviving brother started speaking, and said that he was in fact Ed, and Fred had died.

The very convenient thing is that Fred had an awful lot of gambling debts ... which of course his creditors had to write off since he was dead. Ed (or was he?) had the farm to himself, had no debts weighing him down, and soon after married his sweetheart (or was she really HIS sweetheart?). But he did enjoy playing cards more than anyone remembered before the accident.

Sometimes I wonder ... if my grandma should have called him Grandpa Fred to see what would happen.

I always thought so too. There are probably interesting stories and mysteries like that, and Kaleena's story about the Talbots, back in everybody's family tree if we only knew where to look or who to ask!

On my paternal side, we are distant cousins to Guy Lombardo - famous bandleader who was best known for hosting the New Year's Eve countdown from the Roosevelt Grill in NYCity prior to Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve became the primary show to watch. Although he was a Canadian native, he became a citizen and lived most of his life in NYC, eventually retiring to his house on Long Island where most of our family lived.

Hum... I don´t have interesting people in my family, I guess... My family by father´s side is of poor immigrants that went from Spain when my grandparents were young children - my grandma and my grandpa were cousins - and my mother´s family is very difficult to track back, since they seem to be in Brazil since colonial times and a) Portuguese registers are really confuse b)They weren´t a literate family who wrote or otherwise preserved their familes, as they were only farmers.

Well, after my grandfather by mother´s side died, they named a street with his name in the town he used to live - a very tiny town.

Also, one of my grand-grand-grand parents (also from mother´s side) "married" a native brazilian indian - he caught the indian with a lace of hope and them she was his. Really brute.

Oh, Heather I wasn't ashamed! I just got tired of having everyone ask if I was related to Dick and Jerry. As a kid, I always thought the cartoon characters? In fact, I said "Don't you mean Tom and Jerry?" to one person.

My mom is a genealogist and tells me that we are related to Harry Truman and Charles Goodnight, which if you are familiar with Texas history, was of the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail. I'm glad you asked because that NEVER comes up in conversation. ;-D

Sadly, I burst my grandfather's bubble several years ago. He grew up believing he was 2nd generation Irish-American on both sides of his parents' families. My genealogy research showed that only his mother's family had come to America directly from Ireland, and she was born 2 years after they arrived. His father's family had been in Virginia/Tennessee since before the Revolutionary War, and though they *did* come from Ireland, they were actually Scottish and only in Ireland for a generation before they came to the colonies. Ah, well...

Not really related to anyone Famous that I have tracked down. I am however part native american. One of my great (x how ever many, I can't remember) grandfathers was a Chief and only surviving member of my family during the Trail of Tears.

What makes it even more interesting is, I did research on my Mom (my adoptive). I am adopted and wanted to know about my adoptive families history as much as my own biological family. She is also Cherokee and doing some digging into the scrolls, there it was. I am related to my adoptive Family.

That is a wonderful find Megan! Gave me goose bumps! My grandfathers mother (Dad's side) was full blooded Mohawk, her name was Daisy and my grandmother's mother (Mom's side) was also full Mohawk Indian. Her name was Rose. I always found that interesting that both were named after flowers and both were 100% Indian. I love talk about ancestry....